Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap: Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, fhall die : I'll wink and couch; No man their works muft eye. [Lies down upon his face. Eva. Where's Bede ?-Go you, and where you find a maid, That, ere fhe fleep, hath thrice her prayers faid, * Rein up the organs of her fantasy; Sleep the as found as carclefs infancy: But editions, the final words of each line are printed, oyes and toyes. This therefore is a ftriking inftance of the inconvenience which has arifen from modernizing the orthography of Shakespeare. TYRWHITT. as bilberry.] The bilberry is the whortleberry. Fairies were always fuppofed to have a strong averfion to fluttery. Thus, in the old fong of Robin Good Fellow. See Dr. Percy's Reliques, &c. vol. III: "When houfe or hearth doth fluttish lye, "I pinch the maidens black and blue, &c." STEEVENS. 2 RAISE up the organs of her fantafy;] The fenfe of this fpeech is that he, who had performed her religious duties, fhould be fecure against the illufion of fancy; and have her fleep, like that of infancy, undisturbed by difordered dreams. This was then the popular opinion, that evil fpirits had a power over the fancy; and, by that means, could infpire wicked dreams into those who, on their going to fleep, had not recommended themselves to the protection of heaven. So Shakefpeare makes Imogen, on her lying down, fay: From fairies, and the tempters of the night, As this is the fenfe, let us fee how the common reading expreffes it; Raife up the organs of her fantafy; i e. inflame her imagination with fenfual ideas; which is just the contrary to what the poet would have the speaker say. We cannot therefore but conclude he wrote: REIN up the organs of her fantafy; But thofe, as fleep, and think not on their fins, Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides, and fhins. Quic. About, about; Search Windfor caftle, elves, within and out: Strew good luck, ouphes, on every facred room; That it may ftand till the perpetual doom, 3 In ftate as wholfome, as in state 'tis fit; 4 Worthy the owner, and the owner it. The i. e. curb them, that she be no more disturbed by irregular imaginations, than children in their fleep. For he adds immediately: Sleep he as found as careless infancy. So, in The Tempest: "Give not dalliance too much the REIN." And, in Meafure for Measure: "I give my fenfual race the REIN." To give the rein, being juft the contrary to rein up. The fame thought he has again in Macbeth: Merciful powers! "Restrain in me the curfed thoughts that nature This is highly plaufible; and yet, raife up the organs of her fantafy, may mean, clevate her ideas above fenfuality, exalt them to the nobleft contemplation. STEEVENS. 3 In ftate as wholefome,] The Oxford editor, not knowing the meaning of wholefome, has altered it to, In lite as wholfom, and fo has made the with a moft abfurd one. For the fite or fitua tion must needs be what it is, till the general deftruction. But whalfom here fignifies integer. He wishes the caftle may stand in its prefent ftate of perfection, which the following words plainly fhew: - as in fiate 'tis fit. WARBURTON. 4 Worthy the owner, AND the owner it.] And cannot be the true reading. The context will not allow it; and his court to queen Elizabeth directs us to another: AS the owner it. For, fure he had more addrefs than to content himself with wishing a thing to be, which his complaifance muft fuppofe actually was, namely, the worth of the owner. WARBURTON. Surely this change is unneceffary. The fairy wishes that the caftle and its owner, till the day of doom, may be worthy of each other. 5 The feveral chairs of order look you fcour In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white; Like other. Queen Elizabeth's worth was not devolvable, as we have feen by the conduct of her foolish fucceffor. The prayer of the fairy is therefore fufficiently reasonable and intelligible, without alteration. STEEVENS. The feveral chairs of order, look you fcour With juice of balm, &c.] It was an article of our ancient luxury, to rub tables, &c. with aromatic herbs. Pliny informs us, that the Romans did the fame, to drive away evil fpirits. STEEVENS. In emerald-tufts, flowers PURPLE, blue, and white; Like Saphire, pearl, AND rich embroidery,] These lines are moft miferably corrupted. In the words-Flowers purple, blue, and white-the purple is left uncompared. To remedy this, the editors, who feem to have been fenfible of the imperfection of the comparifon, read, AND rich embroidery; that is, according to them, as the blue and white flowers are compared to faphire and pearl, the purple is compared to rich embroidery. Thus, inftead of mending one falfe ftep, they have made two, by bringing saphire, pearl, and rich embroidery under one predicament. The lines were wrote thus by the poet : In emerald-tufts, flowers PURFLED, blue, and white; i. c. let there be blue and white flowers worked on the greenfward, like faphire and pearl in rich embroidery. To purfle, is to over-lay with tinfel, gold thread, &c. fo our ancestors called a certain lace of this kind of work a purfling-lace. "Tis from the French pour filer. So Spenfer: 66 fhe was yclad, "All in a filken camus, lilly white, "PURFLED upon, with many a folded plight." The change of and into in, in the fecond verfe, is neceffary. For flowers worked, or purfled in the grafs, were not like faphire and pearl fimply, but faphire and pearl in embroidery. How the corrupt reading and was introduced into the text, we have fhewn above, WARBURTON. Whoever 7 Like faphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, } Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order fet: And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be, 8 Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy! Left he transform me to a piece of cheese! Eva. Vile worm, thou waft o'er-look'd even in thy birth 9. Quic. Whoever is convinced by Dr. Warburton's note, will fhew he has very little ftudied the manner of his author, whofe fplendid incorrectnefs in this inftance, as in many others, is furely preferable to the infipid regularity propofed in its room. 7 STEEVENS. charactery.] For the matter with which they make let ters. JOHNSON. So, in another of our author's plays: "All the charactery of my fad brows." i, e. all that feems to be written on them. STEEVENS. 8 of middle earth.] Spirits are fuppofed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground, men therefore are in a middle ftation. JOHNSON. So, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date : Again : "Thou mayst them flea with dint of fwearde, the best knight "That ever was in middle earde.” Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, fol. 26: "Adam, for pride loft his price "In myddell erth." Again, in an ancient alliterative ode, quoted by Mr. Warton, in his Hiftory of English Poetry: old "Middel-erd for mon was made." STEEVENS. 9 Vile worm, thou waft o'er-look'd even in thy birth.] The copy reads-vild. That vild, which fo often occurs in these plays, . Quic. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end : Eva. A trial, come. [They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. Come, will this wood take fire? Fal. Oh, oh, oh! Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire!- plays, was not an error of the prefs, but the pronunciation of the time, appears from thefe lines of Heywood, in his Pleasant Dialegues and Dramas, 1637: EARTH. What goddefs, or how ftyl'd? "AGE. Age, am I call'd. "EARTH. Hence falfe virago vild." MALONE. With trial-fire, &c.] So Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Faithful Shepherdefs: In this flame his finger thrust, "Which will burn him if he luft; "As loth unfpotted flesh to burn." STEEVENS. 2 Eva. It is right, indeed,—}] This fhort fpeech, which is very much in character for fir Hugh, I have inferted from the old quarto, 1619. THEOBALD. 3 - and luxury!] Luxury is here uled for incontinence. So, in King Lear: "To't luxury, pell-mell, for I lack foldiers." STEEVENS. 4 Luft is but a bloody fire,] So the old copies. I once thought it fhould be read: Luft is but a cloudy fire, but |